Thread by @SteB777

1) "People in power stand in our way."

This is the whole reason I keep pointing out the history of the pledges of our leaders to address the climate crisis.
commondreams.org/news/2021/08/0…

2) I'm fed up with the false argument that the failure to address the climate crisis is the fault of the public.

From around the time of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit world leaders started making grandstanding speeches about how they were going to address the climate crisis.

3) The first elected leader who was a climate change denier was Donald Trump in 2016, and he lost the popular vote.

So what stopped world leaders from acting on their pledges to address the climate crisis?

4) The public kept voting for politicians who kept promising to address the climate crisis. It is not the fault of the public they never put into action what they promised. Here was David Cameron promising the "greenest government ever" in 2010.
gov.uk/government/spe…

5) Here was one of David Cameron's predecessor as UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair giving a grandstanding speech on the need to address the climate crisis in 2004.
theguardian.com/politics/2004/…

6) Here is UK PM Margaret Thatcher's speech on the need to address the climate crisis, to the UN General Assembly in 1989.

7) Whilst I have focused on UK Prime Ministers, similar speeches were made by the heads of governments of other countries around the world. This was not a left right thing, as 2 of the speeches I cite were by right wing Conservative PMs.

8) The only way we can effect change in our societies, is via government policy. If people trying to take against the wishes of their government, their actions are seen as subversive.

9) When @ExtinctionR brought London to a standstill to demand action on the climate crisis, the Home Secretary demanded action from the police to stop further such protests.
theguardian.com/environment/20…

10) Whilst claiming that they wanted to reduce carbon emissions, actually governments subsidised fossil fuel use and companies, to the tune of $5 Trillion per year i.e. governments have been encouraging the public to use more fossil fuels.
forbes.com/sites/davidcar…

11) The pattern is very clear. Politicians make a big song and dance about wanting to address the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions. But they take no action to do this, and positively encourage more fossil fuel use.

12) Since world leaders started promising to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel burning in 1990, total emissions have doubled. More emissions have been emitted in the last 30 years, than the 250 years prior to this.
ieep.eu/news/more-than…

13) How is this the fault of the public? They voted for politicians who told them they were going to reduce emissions. It is hardly the fault of the public that governments failed to do what they promised to do.

14) The reason world leaders were making this promises is that by 30 years ago, the public were very concerned about climate change. By 1989 75% of the US public "saw climate change as either a ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ serious problem".

15) So political leaders told the public, don't worry, we will address this crisis. Remember, government leaders are those with the power and ability to take this action. But they didn't, in fact they took action to encourage the increased use of fossil fuels.

16) However, most of the public were not aware that their governments were actively subsidising fossil fuels to encourage their use. No one knew that Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State, was secretly travelling around the world promoting fracking.
motherjones.com/politics/2014/…

17) Government policy and plans are kept secret. So when the heads of government and other politicians in government kept telling the public they were going to reduce carbon emissions, the public had no way of knowing they weren't doing this, but were promoting fossil fuel use.

18) None of this is the public's fault. It was vested interests, the fossil fuel industry and billionaires who were secretly lobbying governments not to take the necessary action. The public never knew about this.

19) In the 1990s onwards, the big oil companies were taking out big full page adverts in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife Magazine etc, saying they were going to be moving away from fossil fuels, to renewables.

20) The powerful, from governments, to the fossil fuel industries, to billionaires and other vested interests have been gaslighting the public to believe they were going to take action on climate change to reduce emissions, when in fact they were doing the complete opposite.

21) The burning of fossil fuels is very profitable. It creates massive profits for the fossil fuel industry, other industries, billionaires etc. Governments got massive revenue, banks profited, and those profiting bank rolled politicians and gave them highly paid roles.

22) In other words, the motivation for ignoring the climate crisis was obvious. It was about money, and the world's richest billionaires becoming enormously more wealthy.

23) In fact, the 1% of the richest people in the world produce double the carbon emissions of the 50% of the poorest people in the world. What do people think their private jets and yachts run on? How they heat and power their mansions.
oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

24) In 2021 we have faced unprecedented extreme weather events, massive flooding, extreme heat and massive wildfires driven by this extreme heat, because of unaddressed climate breakdown.

25) Yet the very powerful profiting from this catastrophe, blame the public because of their control over the media, politicians and governments. The powerful are the obstacle to addressing this crisis, because of their vested interest in causing it.

@ClimateHuman @GretaThunberg @GeorgeMonbiot @JKSteinberger

@threadreaderapp Please unroll?

26) My intention isn't as some apologists for the rich and powerful claim, an attempt to blame them. I am simply pointing to who holds the actual responsibility for the failure to take action on the climate and ecological crisis.

27) After all these people have got the power to do something, they have promised to take action, the public didn't stop them, and the public voted for the politicians and parties that promised this action.

28) All I want people to understand is that the rich and powerful have been actively obstructing action whilst promising this action. So the pubic know where to bring pressure to bear, and not to trust them when they make vague promises to take action well in the future.